Online Poetry Competition Craig Holmes Head of English The International School @ Park City
T
his term saw another new FOBISIA event; a Key Stage Three poetry competition which was hosted by The International School @ ParkCity, Malaysia. Students were invited to write on the theme ‘Lost Worlds’ - a title which left plenty of room for interpretation and creativity. Setting up the competition we chose to keep the instructions to a minimum - indeed, the only ‘rule’ was that poems should address the given theme. More than anything, poetry is an expression of deep emotion and we wanted students to feel free to express the thoughts, ideas and feelings inspired by the title without constraint. The results were wonderful. We were delighted with the response to the competition, receiving 106 entries from 22 different schools. It was very obvious from the wide range of high quality writing that schools, teachers and students had engaged enthusiastically with the task. Perhaps inevitably, many students choose to write about their own experiences over the last 15 months or so coping with the pandemic which has affected all of us. Others chose to link ‘Lost Worlds’ to an environmental message, urging readers to consider the effect our actions have on the world around us. There were poems about growing up and the loss of childhood innocence, fantastical descriptions of long lost civilisations, fascinating historical interpretations and a number of poems that took us all the way into deepest darkest space. The talent and creativity on display gave the judges an extremely difficult task. After much heated debate the ISP English Department drew up a shortlist of finalists which was shared anonymously with the school staff who were invited to vote on their favourites. The results were extremely close but I’m sure you will agree that we emerged with 3 admirable runners up and 3 very impressive winners. Thank you to all of the schools and the students who participated. It was a joy to read all of the entries we received and inspiring to see the English language used so deftly and so passionately to express such a range of emotions and ideas.
As we grew… Sailing though the green lands, Majestic dragons by our side! Wings on our backs, swords in hand In our imagination we can ride! The swings were our horses, The slides our jungle vines, Our imagination was an endless source Our ambitions grew and we climbed. Chopsticks were our fairy wands, Pots were our royal drums, The Kingdom was near the pond The only rules were set out by mums! As the trees got older, so did we… The green-lands were left unexplored. The dragons weren’t by our sides, Our wings were left unused, Rust grew on the swords. The horses were left abandoned. The jungle vines rotted away. A wall blocked out our imagination stream. We fell off our ambition tree. Our kingdom fell, the drums broke, The rules by mums disappeared… As time passed, our ambition tree began to rot – Our creativity flew away like dust on a windy day. And our imagination stream dried up – All that was left was this dull world…
Minh Anh British Vietnamese International School, HCMC
Last but not least, huge congratulations to the runners up and to the winners; you should be very proud and I am sure the readers of THE FOBISIAN will enjoy them as much as the judges did.
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